'Les Miz': Behind the barricade

We go behind the barricade and explore some of the secrets to presenting this adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel that one poll in England recently declared “the greatest musical of all time.”

By Rick AllenStaff writer

It's about midway through the six-week run of “Les Miserables” at the Ocala Civic Theatre. And by now there are probably many who've seen it and are wondering, “How'd they do that?”For instance, there's the music of a full orchestra, but where are the musicians? That starry sky, where'd it come from? And how'd they put together the barricade that's so crucial to the second act and get it into place?It's all staging.And successful staging can be “invaluable” to the audience, said Michael Coons, the technical theater instructor at West Port High School. “Just an actor singing on an empty stage can be powerful. But if you highlight that actor with lights and scenery, you get an experience the audience can connect to.”It's the magic. “And they [OCT] are setting a standard that we have to rise to,” he added.So, again, how'd they do it? Here, we go behind the barricade and explore some of the secrets to presenting this adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel that one poll in England recently declared “the greatest musical of all time.”“Les Miz” is easily the most challenging production staged by this community theater. “ 'Les Miserables' is a huge event for any theater regardless of size,” wrote Ron Ziegler with the American Association of Community Theatre. “Because of the sweep of the story and enormity of audience expectations, the show needs to be scenically interesting at least and spectacular at best.”“Les Miz” also is the most expensive play OCT has ever done. “It cost us $38,000 just for the rights to present it,” said Mary Britt, executive director of the theater. And if 38 grand isn't enough of a challenge, another arrived even before the librettos and score: “They don't want us to just copy the Broadway production,” Britt said. Meaning: Come up with your own staging.“A lot of the audience is familiar with the show,” she said. “They've seen it in New York, or they've seen it on tour; now they've seen the movie. So our challenge is what we present to them meets their expectations, and their expectations are high.”The show has been playing to packed houses. “I thought they did a fabulous job,” Coons said. “Some of the scenic work was really spectacular.”But it couldn't be so without a few tricks:

Full sound from a hobbit holeIn the middle of the front of the stage there's a hole, dubbed the “Hobbit Hole” by music director Ryan Pagels. This is where he conducts the complicated score that's essentially nonstop music from start to finish.With him in the cramped space are musicians who play trumpet, French horn, flute, clarinet violin and a mini-keyboard plugged into a laptop containing the remainder of the full orchestra. This is the OrchEXTRA.“It's a digital program of all the orchestra parts,” Pagels said. “We could do the show without any instruments.”But it's not just a recording of the orchestra; rather, this is a controllable digital version of each instrument. The tempo can be increased or slowed, instruments can be dropped. Besides providing a full sound, the system can vamp for time when, say, a set change takes too long.“It's like nothing I've done before,” said Art Rojas on the OrchEXTRA, though he usually plays trombone, drums and saxophone.

'To the barricades'Crucial to Act Two is the barricade, a defense in a Paris side street hastily built from doors, windows, barrels, mattresses and other household stuff; this is where the idealistic students hide during their brief uprising in 1832 against the restored French monarchy.On Broadway, the barricade was on a turntable and simply rotated into place. On the OCT stage, this is 3,800 pounds of windows, doors and wagon wheels. It takes up most of the stage and is rolled into place on a track.“Fortunately, our shop is right behind the stage so we have the room to push it back and store it,” said technical director Tim Dygert. Despite its weight, the barricade needs only one crew member to roll it into place. Still, it can't be haphazardly positioned; several special lights are focused to particular points on the barricade, meaning it must be placed just so every time. Dygert and crew built the track on the stage floor so “the wagon,” as he called it, doesn't shift side-to-side when it's rolled forward.“The guide — the 'blade' — is sticking out 16 feet behind the unit to keep it straight,” he said.

Starry, starry nightIn the first act, Inspector Javert vows to the stars never to quit his righteous quest to capture Valjean. Above him on the OCT stage is a star field with hundreds of twinkle-twinkles.Actually, they are more than a mile — 6,000-plus feet — of end-light fiber-optic thread poking through a black backdrop. Volunteers spent two days under the direction of scenic designer Jim Morgan positioning these “stars” in this “sky.” “We're all in the star club now,” quipped Sandy Proctor. “And they say community theater is not about the stars,” Morgan retorted.A close look at this star field shows that none of our familiar constellations are there. “We talked about it,” said technical director Tim Dygert. “But it was so last minute.”

Sitzprobe? Isn't that painful?That depends on the definition of “pain.” Pagels explained a “sitzprobe” is an opera term for when the cast and orchestra rehearse just the music, without any staging.The sitzprobe the weekend before “Les Miz” opened took four hours, nearly twice as long as the show's actual running time.

A scrim in the nightIn movies, it's fairly easy to mark the passage of time; simply overlay the date onto background frames and voila! It's not that easy live.OCT, like thousands of amateur and professional theaters, uses a black scrim for this. A scrim is a stagewide woven screen; when it's lit from the front, everything behind it is hidden. It's onto a front scrim that time cues — “Paris, 1832” — are projected.But when lit from behind the audience can see what's going on, though it's as if seeing the action through a mist.

We'll always have ParisOne way OCT overcame the “no-copy” provision was to create a background drawn in an impressionist style. Morgan's 6-inch-by-6-inch drawings were then printed onto a 36-foot-by-23-foot background. Some atomized smoke from a “hazer” adds to the dingy, grimy ambiance of early 19th century France.Smaller set pieces and “smart” lights make up the rest of the design. For instance, when a character jumps from a bridge, the bridge piece is flown up behind him and swirling lights give the impression he is falling.“It's a big show,” said Morgan. “Fortunately, director James Sohre had done it before and said it doesn't have to take a gigantic set.”Maybe not, but it is nevertheless a magical one.Rick Allen can be reached at rick.allen@starbanner.com or 867-4154.